RENOWNED author
Shimmer Chinodya launched his new novel Strife, published by Weaver
Press, at the Book Café with an inspired performance that
left some in stitches and others frowning.

A clearly overjoyed
Chinodya, sipping white wine, was more than an act on the high table
where he sat with brilliant author (Mapenzi) and poet Ignatius Mabasa.

He consistently
bellowed greetings to his two daughters and other relatives in the
packed Book Café. Sometimes, he even struck a conversation
in the middle of an address by Mabasa, who was the main guest.

It became more
hilarious when he was asked to read an extract from his novel. With
a quavering voice, he struggled through the pages and digressed
from the core business to wave to a recognised face in the audience.

Chinodya roared:
"Muri kuzvinzwa here vana vangu vasikana? You should know this passage
is about that Babamunini. Dudu (Manhenga), are you there my lovely
daughter? I wish I had daughters that are as beautiful as you are."

But as he went
on reading, unaware of the time allotted to him in the programme,
the light on the stage just went off and it was not clear if that
was by design or default.

Had somebody had
enough?

Chinodya’s book
was met with enthusiasm and is likely to sell well.

Strife examines
one family’s responses to destiny. Tracing the Gwanangara’s roots
back over a century, Chinodya interweaves past and present, juxtaposing
incidents never forgotten or resolved, revealing how memory becomes
an actor in lived time.

Mabasa said of
the book: "I enjoyed reading Strife and was at the same time devastated
by the debris of cultural orphans left groping for the meaning of
life.

"I said to myself:
maybe the meaning of life for Shimmer’s characters is in Christianity
which, surprisingly, Shimmer only makes reference to in passing,
compared to the detailed manner in which he delves into the Bira
ceremonies."

Chinodya said
he drew the story from the core of his life experiences.

"People insist
I become creative and stop writing autobiographically but I know
no other way other than this. So this in a nutshell is a story about
my life," Chinodya told Standardplus.

He said it took
him six years to write the novel: "You literally carry your work
and life in a briefcase for such a long time and it all becomes
part of you. Writing becomes a need, a serious one."

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